By Kollengode S Venkataraman
The US, the First World’s leader, routinely sends monitors to oversee elections in the wretched Third World, to educate them on democracy and peaceful transfer of power, and to prevent voter intimidation and ballot box stealing. Now, the president of the leader of the First World, Donald Trump, has been characterizing the 2020 elections in which he himself is the candidate, using the same terms, just because he lost. And lost it big, both in popular votes and the mysterious electoral college votes.
Donald Trump, already a global laughingstock for quite some time, also turned the GOP that nominated him into a grotesque caricature, and a willing accomplice in his shenanigans. Republicans used to brag about their righteousness rooted in their Judeo-Christian heritage, personal rectitude, fiscal responsibility, and ethical probity. Their astounding hypocrisy in acquiescing to Trump, who is the antithesis to these values, is embarrassing even to some of GOP’s own leaders. In this long drawn tragicomedy, the US lost some of its sheen and moral high ground on these matters.
The nine unelected High Priests in black gowns unanimously refusing to put up with Trump’s pranks are the saving grace in this drama. Relish the irony here: six of them are appointed by Republican presidents,
If election fraud was pervasive against the Republicans, how is that they gained more seats in the Congress, and GOP’s grip in state legislatures is intact? The rank-and-file Republicans may not accept the nation rejecting Donald Trump in the elections, both as a person and as president. That is how Trump built up his supporters appealing to their insecurities, fears, and racial/religious/ethnic prejudices.
What is embarrassing is that not many in the GOP leadership stood up to their president even after he lost big in both popular votes and the electoral college votes.
As many suspect, if foreign hands (China, Russia, their surrogates and others) were at work for weakening the US, they got their job done with great finesse by damaging it from inside with very little cost to themselves.
Now it will take quite some time and lot of diplomatic skills for President Biden to regain the lost ground for the US, as he gets ready to fight the Covid-19 pandemic on multiple fronts. END